Willie O'Dea (Limerick City, Fianna Fail)
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327. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the estimated full-year cost of allowing lone parents in employment whose children are aged between seven and 14 years of age to receive both jobseeker's transition payment and the working family payment; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [44089/19]

Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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My Department provides a number of options for income support to lone parents once their entitlement to the One-Parent Family Payment (OFP) ceases.  These include the Jobseeker’s Transitional Payment (JST) payment where the youngest child is aged 7-13 years (inclusive), and the Jobseeker’s Allowance (JA) payment which may be paid to lone parents where the youngest child is aged 14 or over.  The Working Family Payment (WFP), is also available to lone parents who are working 19 or more hours per week.  Lone parents who move to Working Family Payment may also apply for the Back to Work Family Dividend (BTWFD).

The concurrent payment of Jobseeker’s Transitional Payment and Working Family Payment may contradict the policy goal of the changes to the One-Parent Family Payment scheme introduced since 2015, which were to tackle long-term social welfare dependency - and its associated poverty risks - through a tapering of income supports and a more active engagement process offering enhanced educational, training and employment supports.  Concurrent payment of Jobseeker’s Transitional Payment and Working Family Payment would also introduce a steep financial "cliff" for lone parents when their youngest child reaches 14 years of age and they potentially move to Jobseeker’s Allowance.   

Lone parents currently on Jobseeker’s Transitional Payment who increase their working hours to 19 or more per week can transfer from Jobseeker’s Transitional Payment to Working Family Payment. 

I am advised that it is difficult to estimate the cost of paying Jobseeker’s Transitional Payment and Working Family Payment concurrently to lone parents with children aged between 7 and 13 with any accuracy as the potential inflows where lone parents would be incentivised to increase their hours to 19 in order to qualify for both payments would have to be considered and this is not possible to quantify.

Willie O'Dea (Limerick City, Fianna Fail)
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328. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the estimated full-year cost in 2020 of extending the jobseeker's transitional payment for lone parents until their youngest child reaches 18 years of age; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [44090/19]

Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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My Department provides a number of options for income support to lone parents once their entitlement to the One-Parent Family Payment (OFP) ceases.  These include the Jobseeker’s Transitional Payment (JST) payment where the youngest child is aged 7-13 years (inclusive) and the Jobseeker’s Allowance (JA) payment which may be paid to lone parents where the youngest child is aged 14 or over.  The Working Family Payment (WFP), is also available to lone parents who are working 19 or more hours per week.  Lone parents who move to WFP may also apply for the Back to Work Family Dividend (BTWFD).

I am advised that the cost of increasing the age limit for a qualified child for the jobseeker's transitional payment (JST) until the youngest child reaches 18 is not easily estimated as there are significant barriers to undertaking such an exercise.  For example, customers may no longer be within the welfare system, while others could seek to move from alternative payments such as Jobseekers Allowance (JA), the Working Family Payment (WFP) and the Back to Work Family Dividend (BTWFD) back to JST.  It would be difficult for my Department to estimate the magnitude of this flow into and between schemes with any degree of accuracy.

Likewise, I am advised that the number of young people who are 18 years of age and over who are still in secondary education, and the proportion of those who are the children of lone parents in receipt of benefits, is not readily available or easily estimated.  As these unknown factors are critical to providing a reliable estimate the Department is not in a position to provide an full-year cost as requested by the Deputy.